A son accused of chopping up his mum has admitted that he was the last person to see her alive - but denied killing her.

Giving evidence for just over an hour Dubliner James Dunleavy, 40, repeatedly insisted he loved mother Philomena, 66.

He also told a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh that he did not have mental health problems and claimed doctors had been swayed by the serious charge he was facing.

Mother-of-five Philomena, from Marino in Dublin, had been staying with her son in the city’s Balgreen Road - just a few minutes walk away from where her remains were found on Corstorphine Hill, a local nature reserve.

Dunleavy - also known as Seamus - is accused of beating up and strangling his mum to death before cutting off her head and legs.

Backed by his father, retired painter and decorator James, 68, the accused told the trial that Philomena was in the habit of “going walkabout” without saying where she was going.

Defence QC Gordon Jackson started by asking Dunleavy if he had done anything that would have caused the death of his mother.

Dunleavy told the lawyer: “No.”

Mr Jackson continued by asking Dunleavy if he was responsible for what happened to her before she got buried and again he responded: “No”.

Three psychiatrists agreed Dunleavy was suffering from some sort of mental disorder but he claimed: “I think the gravity of the crime I am accused of may have coloured their perception.”

He added: “They are entitled to their opinion.”

The trial heard that after growing up in Dublin, Dunleavy moved to the Coventry and Birmingham area of England in about 1990 where he worked as a labourer on building sites, leaving behind a daughter after a long-term relationship broke up.

He moved to Edinburgh to work on the construction of the city’s tram lines. His mum had visited him in Edinburgh on a previous occasion.

Dunleavy denied arguing with his mother just before she is believed to have died.

He claimed that a neighbour who described a row had misinterpreted “a wordy discussion” between them.

He insisted: “We were just having a bit of banter, that’s all.”

Asked if he was surprised by his mum’s sudden departure, Dunleavy said: “That was my mother’s MO.”

He continued: “I did nothing to my mother. I thought she would miraculously appear again.”